Victoria Winters
Victoria "Vicki" Winters was an orphan who was brought to Collinwood by Elizabeth Collins Stoddard to serve as a companion and governess for her nephew David. Hammond Foundling Home The infant Victoria was dropped off on the doorstep of the Hammond Foundling Home in New York in the winter of 1947 in a cardboard box with a note pinned to it, stating, "Her name is Victoria. I cannot take care of her." The home took her in and gave her the last name "Winters" after the season (4). : The wording of the letter will later be changed to "CAN'T take care of her" (34). When she turned two, letters began arriving at the home every month, addressed to Victoria. Inside was $50 in cash and nothing else. The letters were never signed, but they were postmarked Bangor, Maine (4). When she was six years old, an attendant at the home told Victoria that her parents were coming to pick her up. She knew it was untrue, but was still very excited and felt special for about two weeks (21). Like many of the other children, Victoria lived a relatively unhappy life in the foundling home, never knowing who her real parents or family were. She once got into a fight with a girl and gave her a bloody nose (23). One girl at the home who was nine or ten years old used to chase people away because she didn't like herself and figured no one else would either. A man eventually came and talked with her over and over again until the girl realized her problem (15). :Victoria told this story to David Collins, but she may have been making it up to help him deal with his problem. The money from Bangor inexplicably stopped arriving when Victoria turned sixteen (4). Vicki began working at the home under the employment of Mrs. Hopewell when she got older (1, 8). Collinwood One morning in 1967, Vicki received a letter from Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in Collinsport, Maine offering her a job as a governess at Collinwood. Never having heard of Mrs. Stoddard or Collinsport, she investigated and found that it's fifty miles from Bangor, from where she'd received money as a child (1). Victoria accepted the job and took a train from New York to Collinsport, hoping it held the answers to her past. Burke Devlin was aboard the same train, but she didn't meet him until they deboarded and he offered her a ride into town (1). When asked asked why she hired her, Elizabeth claimed that her brother Roger had been recommended her by someone at the orphanage (2). Roger later "confirmed" this fact, despite being initially ignorant of it, but Victoria knew something was being kept from her (25). David Victoria's job was to tutor Roger's son David, but she soon learned that he was a very disturbed boy. Upon first seeing Vicki, David declared that he hated her (4). David felt that Vicki was there to replace his mother and rejected Vicki at every turn (6). Vicki became extra concerned when she learned that David had attempted to kill his father; however, David stole the evidence before she could present it to Elizabeth (25, 26). Josette Victoria developed an interest in Josette Collins and appeared to share an affinity with her ghost. Many times, Josette's spirit would contact her to warn her of danger and even appeared to her when Victoria's life was threatened by Matthew Morgan. Twice, Josette used Victoria as her medium during séances. Life Victoria's preferred drink was sherry (34). Final Fate Victoria and Peter Bradford made plans to leave and live happily together after Barnabas' rescue in 1796 (665). Peter's ghost revealed later that Victoria had died not long after when Leviathan Jeb Hawkes caused her to leap to her death from Widows' Hill (967). Character Development Dan Curtis first dreamt of a dark-haired girl riding a train to an estate, which was the inspiration for Dark Shadows. In Shadows on the Wall, the series' bible, Victoria was initially called Sheila March until the name was changed to suggest a more regal, older time. Her search for answers to her mysterious past, which was the driving force behind her accepting the governess position at Collinwood, would have originally led to the revelation that Victoria was the product of an affair between Paul Stoddard and Betty Handscombe. Elizabeth was to have discovered Victoria's existence the night she "murdered" Paul, and her guilt over his death prompted her to send money to the Foundling Home. However, these plans were eventually scrapped--despite early references to Betty (which can be seen as red herrings)--when the Dark Shadows production team decided that Victoria would be Elizabeth's illegitimate daughter instead. This was due, in part, to Alexandra Moltke's close resemblance to Joan Bennett. As the Adam/Eve storyline of 1968 began to wind down, Ron Sproat was in the stages of slanting the plot to reveal Victoria's lineage when Moltke left the series due to her pregnancy. She was briefly replaced twice, but neither actress was (reportedly) accepted by the audience. Attempts were made to persuade Moltke to return, but, unhappy with her diminished role and content to be a stay-at-home mother to her new son, she declined. Any and all plans for the character were ultimately shelved, and Victoria Winters was unceremoniously written out with an off-screen death, leaving her as much of a mystery as when she first arrived. Return to Collinwood With the approval of Dan Curtis Productions, an original audio play featuring many members of the original cast was written and recorded. During the reading of Elizabeth's will, it is finally revealed that Victoria was, in fact, her illegitimate daughter. Appearances 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 43, 46, 134, 135, 210, 211, 212, 213, 217, 220, 222, 223, 228, 229, 230, 232, 233, 234, 235, 237, 238, 240, 241, 245, 246, 249, 251, 252, 253, 256, 259, 262, 263, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 274, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 293, 294, 295, 298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 306, 307, 309, 311, 312, 313, 315, 316, 320, 324, 325, 326, 327, 332, 334, 336, 338, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 347, 349, 352, 353, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368/369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 379, 382, 385, 386, 387, 389, 396, 398, 399, 400, 401, 408, 412, 413, 416, 421, 427, 433, 435, 436, 437, 452, 453, 454, 455, 456, 458, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 468, 470, 471, 473, 474, 476, 478, 479, 482, 487, 488, 490, 504, 509, 517, 518, 519, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531, 532/533, 534, 535, 539, 547, 550, 552, 553, 555, 556, 559, 565, 567, 575, 576, 579, 583, 585, 586, 589, 603, 604, 610, 617, 618, 619, 620, 622, 624, 625, 626, 627, 630, 631, 635, 636, 637, 638, 640, 641, 642, 650, 662, 664, 665 Winters, Victoria Winters, Victoria Winters, Victoria Winters, Victoria